Whether you are new to the guitar world or already an experienced guitar player, you know that guitar effects are a great way to expand on the sounds your guitar makes. Guitar pedals play an important role in shaping the sound of your guitar. They are like magic boxes of tricks, small metal enclosures housing circuitry you step on to activate. That’s why sometimes they are referred to as stompboxes as well.
However, the world of guitar effects pedals may seem daunting to break into. Choosing the right guitar pedal is subjective and no one can tell you what you are going to love, but there are plenty of different effects pedal types that can alter the sound of your guitar. To help you narrow down your choices, here are a few things you should know when looking for a guitar pedal Australia music equipment stores provide.
How is a Guitar Pedal Used?
There are many effects available in guitar pedals and while some pedals are for effects, others are for utility, like tuner pedals, for instance. Here are all the different varieties of guitar pedals you can consider when choosing a guitar pedal Australia wide, that will help you discover a whole new range of guitar effects and unique tones.
- Tuner pedals
- Volume pedals
- Expression pedals
- Compressor pedals
- Buffer pedals
- Preamp pedals
- Wah pedals
- Distortion pedals
- Overdrive pedals
- Boost pedals
- Equaliser pedals
- Fuzz pedals
- Reverb pedals
- Delay pedals
- Leslie or Rotary pedals
- Phaser pedals
- Trelomo pedals
- Flanger pedals
- Envelope Filter pedals
- Synth pedals
- Pitch-Shifting pedals
- Looper pedals
- Octave and Harmoniser pedals
- Switcher or Controller pedals
- Multi-Effects pedals
- Other pedals
Choosing your guitar pedal depends on the style of music you play, the tone you want and the current capabilities of your guitar and amplifier. Buying pedals can be quite fun and inspiring as well as every new effect pedal allows you to experiment with sounds and textures and take your guitar playing experience to a whole new level. Here is what you need to know about different pedals families.
Distortion, Overdrive and Fuzz
These are probably the most popular effects of all times. These pedals add “dirt”, gain and “crunch” to your guitar sound. So, how do they do that? An overdrive effect models the sound of hot tubes in an amplifier and tends to change the original sound the least. Distortion, on the other hand, has additional options to boost, equalise or scoop some frequencies in your sound and tends to colour the original sound more heavily. Fuzz pedals use germanium circuits or special silicon to emulate the raspy sound of a guitar and add some serious edge to it.
Delay and Reverb
These two make your guitar echo. A delay works by repeating the audio signal with a mix, variable speed and some repeats. It may have a tap feature allowing you to sync up the temp of the repeats. A reverb models the sound in different spaces and makes your guitar sound more resonant.
Modulation
This family of pedals alters the sound waves produced by your guitar to make them more dynamic and complex. A chorus pedal adds warmth and depth to your sound and can give the impression that more than one guitar is playing. Flanger and Phaser pedals create sweeping sounds by displacing the audio signal to alter the spectrum of frequency. A vibrato pedal varies pitch, while a tremolo pedal creates the illusion of a rotary speaker by altering the volume signal at a controllable depth and rate.
Compressor and Boost
A compressor pedal adds sustain and makes your guitar stand out in the mix by evening out the signal. A boost pedal increases the output level with a variable decibel increase. These two are perfect when you are taking a solo, but you don’t want to change the tone much.
Wah and Volume
A wah pedal uses a foot-controlled filter to create the eponymous “wah-wah” effect. If you want to know how it sounds, just listen to Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child”. A volume pedal uses a similar foot-controlled action in order to create swells or change your guitar’s volume on the fly.
Looper
This pedal allows you to create complex layered soundscapes and jam with yourself. It will loop any audio signal, so you can use it with a variety of instruments.
Octave and Harmonise
Both of these pedals allow you to add a variety of frequencies below or above your guitar, whether you want to turn your guitar into a bass or the other way around, or even play both guitar and bass at once.
Multi-Effect
If you are not sure which effect you may need, there are some pedals and digital amps that come with a range of effects built-in. Known as multi-effects, they are versatile but can lack the customisation and depth of single effects units.
Accessories
Almost every pedal, except a passive volume one, requires a battery or an external power supply to operate. While some come with their own power supply, most do not include power supplies, so you will need to purchase one separately.
Are Guitar Pedals Necessary?
These days, you can find amplifiers with built-in effects and/or patches to achieve different sounds. However, the idea behind guitar pedals is to have an additional effect that may or may not be accessible through the guitar or the amplifier alone. So, if you want to make your sound more interesting, dynamic and rich and give your guitar a variety of characteristic sounds, consider getting a guitar pedal.
